1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to computer systems and in particular to computer-implemented methods of presenting data in a graphical overlay.
2. Description of the Related Art
The management and operation of cities and/or enterprises is a challenging task, particularly with the ever-increasing size and number of entities within them. In order to make well-informed decisions regarding city and/or enterprise operations, relationships between and among entities, such as buildings, equipment, etc., and related information such as maintenance history and schedules, must be available and understood. The modeling of complex relationships among such entities is challenging and becomes more difficult as the complexities of cities/enterprises increase. Semantic models have been used to model the relationships among city/enterprise entities, and specifically have been used to describe linkages between and among different sets of data across various entities. However, in order to learn anything about the relationships and associations defined by a semantic model, a user must construct a set of fairly complex queries (e.g., structured query language (SQL) queries) in order to retrieve desired relational information about the entities. Additionally, users often need ways to navigate such complex and layered datasets beyond the current practice of using map-based metaphors, structured queries, visual time sequences, SQL queries, etc.